I had read recently about Ford being the first to use e-ink for an advertisement in a magazine but I didn’t see it until today in the airport magazine stand. Web Content and DIgital Asset Management are obvious beneficiaries of this new medium and dynamic billboards will be everywhere in the next few years.

I see a major disruption in the signage industry looming. As the cost of e-ink film comes down it will surely replace traditional print signage. The folks that build huge roadside billboards have some of the technical expertise to manage and support this new medium but your typical print shop will be ill-equipped to provide turn key solutions. There’s an opportunity for someone to create straight forward solutions that the print shops can market to the SMB space.

It will get a lot more interesting when cab drivers have e-ink film plastered on their cars and marketplaces develop to dynamically display ads that are geo-aware…”Hungry for a Slice of Pizza? Look behind you!”.

Here is a good video:

Here is another video and explanation of the esquire cover from their editor.